


Beer and Chicken

by losemotivationquickly



Category: iKON (Korea Band)
Genre: Established Relationship, Hide and Seek, M/M, Rivalry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-02-11 06:58:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12929946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/losemotivationquickly/pseuds/losemotivationquickly
Summary: Kim Jiwon was sunshine and daisy and everything nice. Or at least he was, towards anyone who was not Kim- cough, asshole- Hanbin.





	1. Chapter 1

Kim Jiwon was that kind of person, the kind to walk in a crowd of friends, the kind that talked loudly and smiled brightly and was ridiculously good at sport, the kind that would not hold grudge against anybody. Kim Jiwon was sunshine and daisy and the embodiment of happiness that it would just be out of character for him to be hostile. But according to the current situation when he was trying to refuse being partner with a classmate as if his life depended on it, it was finally happening. Kim Jiwon was being mean.

They were studying Composing, and just a second ago Jiwon was still beaming with his crescent eyes and bunny-like smile, ready to turn to make pair with his best friend Jinhwan for the assignment when the misfortune befell. The professor apparently thought that Jiwon might have been too happy for such a tough project, so he decided to pair him up with another student. It could even be anyone. It could have, but then it had to be _him_.

"No." Jiwon sternly said. He looked a bit intimidating when there wasn't any smile drawn on his face. "I'm not doing it. Not with that kid." He pointed to a boy who was calmly gathering his books despite being the center of the argument. The professor raised his eyebrow.

"That kid is the best student in my class, and here I thought I'm doing you a favor by pairing you with him." He said, earning a distasteful grimace from Jiwon. "And his name is not 'that kid', Mr. Kim. He's Kim Hanbin, and I would rather you two address each other friendly since you are going to present the assignment together."

Before Jiwon got to say anything, the other boy had cut in without even granting him a glance. His voice monotone and bored as he said:

"It's okay, professor. If he doesn't want to coorperate, I can just do this on my own."

"You kids sure like to talk back," the professor chuckled humorlessly. "This is my class. You do as I suggest, or I fail both of you for the assignment. Period."

"I can't compose with that kid, prof." Jiwon tried again in despair. He knew he was crossing the line, but he didn't want to compose some crap just because his partner was a pain in the ass. "I can't do this to my music."

"That's too bad." His professor concluded coldly, then strode out before he could say anything further. Jiwon sighed heavily, then turned around to throw a look of hatred to his new partner. He didn't expect to see the other boy staring right back at him with pitch black orbs full of curiosity.

"Wow. 100 points for effort. You must seriously dislike me." Kim Hanbin said, still with his toneless voice. Unlike the sulky look sent to him, he eyed Jiwon with nothing other than pure interest. "What did I do to you?"

"You don't even remember?" Jiwon snapped with disbelief, to which the other boy just shrugged.

"Nope. I'm busy being an asshole to others, too." He said with a light grin. His lips curved into a bigger smile as Jiwon scowled, grabbed his bag and turned to get out of the classroom. He inwardly swore when he heard Hanbin calling after him.

"Look forward to listening to your trash, partner!" The boy said, a laugh soaked his voice.  
  


 

Jinhwan was waiting for him outside the classroom. The older boy gave him a sympathetic pat on the back as he saw a sour expression displayed on Jiwon's face.

"That really sucks." Jinhwan said after a long silence. He dragged the younger to a vending machine nearby and pushed the button under an iced Americano. "You think you can pass this with him?"

"As in pass away? Yes." Jiwon sullenly replied, slightly nodded in appreciation as the older boy handed him the coffee cup. "I can't even hold a conversation with him, what makes you think I can compose with that brat?"

"You can try. He is the best student in the class. That says something." Jinhwan said objectively, but the other just scoffed.

"That says that he is good at kissing asses." He grumbled, sipping his coffee while Jinhwan watched him amusedly.

"I never saw you like this outside the studio," He chuckled. "Turning all Bobby for him. What did the kid do to you?"

Jiwon gifted the older a childish grimace in reply. Jinhwan laughed, then decided to pick up another topic. Jiwon didn't really listen to him, though. He nodded occasionally, an earbud already in his ear and a song of the max volume played loudly. The artist name on the phone's screen indicated "Bobby", and he heard his own voice spitting words and rthythm by his ear.

He liked listening to his own songs sometime, but not now, not when he needed his source of comfort. He tapped on the screen and a new song appeared. "B.I", the artist name said. Jiwon smiled as he exhaled with the familiar fierce voice ringing in his mind. B.I was his favorite underground rapper, despite him being one himself.

Not many people at school knew this side of Jiwon, the Bobby side who swore and battled with lyrics and rthymth. He started uploading his recordings just for the fun of it a year ago, and unexpectedly, people loved it. The Jiwon side was admired for so long that he didn't realize that he had been craving for Bobby to be acknowledged, too. Only Jinhwan and some of his closest friends knew about this, and he would like to keep it that way.

He discovered B.I less than a month ago, and the moment those arrogant words and aggressive flow intruded his ears, he thought he might have gained a musical crush.- whatever that might mean. While Bobby was all sharp edges, confident and reckless, B.I was cold and blunt to the point of being offensive, it was amazing. Jiwon found himself writing a fan-mail to the other rapper in a daze, not expecting to receive a proper reply, which he actually did.

" _I deeply appreciate your support_." B.I wrote, capitalizing first letters and all polite. _"It was such an honor, especially when you- Bobby, is also the artist that I respect the most."_

Jiwon couldn't count the number of times he had rolled on his bed and read the message over and over again. He was B.I's fan, and B.I was one of his. Whatever this admiration-trading phase they were having, it was awesome. They quickly became online friends, and when B.I explored the musical compatibility between them, he started sending Jiwon songs for advice.

B.I didn't write anything besides rap tracks and it could be tiring having to hear a song full of insults all day, but Jiwon even went to sleep with the song playing as a lullaby. He found them endearing and weirdly comforting in some ways, and just listening to B.I's voice could cure him of bad moods in any day. But even B.I's songs couldn't save Jiwon from the plague called Kim Hanbin.

"Is that B.I?" He had said when coincidentally passing by Jiwon in the cafeteria, back in the time when they were still friendly enough to breathe the same air.

"Yeah. You know him?" Jiwon cracked a huge smile and paused the song. The other boy gave him a scoff in return.

"I do." He smiled fondly, eyeing Jiwon with great interest. "All trash, those songs of his."

Jiwon's smile got swiped off his face instantly. He stared at the other blankly.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, those are all empty threats from a cocky asinine individual who has to brag to defend his vulnerable self out of inferiority, clearly." Hanbin tilted his head as he clarified, a smirk never left his face. He seemed even more intrigued as Jiwon clenched his teeth in anger.

"He is not cocky nor asinine," He said, voice low and soaked with annoyance. "Don't say it like you know him."

"Oh? And you know him?" Hanbin raised an eyebrow, his smile widened as Jiwon pressed his lips into a thin line, furious at himself for not being able to say anything back. "Enough said." The other boy chuckled, then strode away with his food tray, leaving a broken protential friendship and ruined future assignment behind.

Jiwon knew Hanbin wrote songs. He bullshit his way in the mid term test with a love song, and it ranked first, so maybe it wasn't really bullshit. He excelled at composing stuff different from B.I, but that didn't give him the right to degrade the latter, so Jiwon had concluded. Bobby just wouldn't work with someone who disrespected B.I.

Jiwon let out an exhausted sigh somewhere in the middle of Jinhwan's story about cats' vomit ( Jiwon didn't really know how he got there). He just felt beaten. B.I's voice danced on his mind, but he needed more to lift up his terrible mood.

A sudden idea sparked as his finger lingered on the other rapper's name. He had the plan for a week, but that didn't stop him from feeling all nervous as he typed the message. His heart roughly hit his ribcage when he pressed the send button.

B.I always replied after a minute. But this time the icon indicating new message appeared when Jiwon had only counted to 15. The latter's lips curved in satisfaction as he read the answer, and he plugged the other earbud in his ear.  
  


_From: Bobby_

_Wanna meet?_  
  


 

 

Hanbin was not capable of writing shits right now.

He could write all kinds of shit, edgy shit and romantic shit and other musical shit depending on his mood-swing. But not right now. Words and different tracks seemed to be having a death match inside his mind and wouldn't come together. He gave up. As if having to execute the project by himself wasn't shitty enough, he couldn't even produce anything for the assignment.

Fuck this, he thought as he prodded a hole on his notebook with his pencil, then violently scratched whatever he was scribbling. This sucked. 

Alright, if he hadn't been such a dick to his designated partner, he wouldn't be suffering as much as right now. Kim Jiwon was a capable guy, and he seemed friendly till two weeks ago, but instead of trying to fix their misunderstanding, Hanbin just couldn't refrain from teasing the other hence pushing the tension further downhill. Come on, anyone in his situation would do the same. Okay, maybe only assholes like him would do the same, but the harm was done. He was positive that Jiwon wouldn't even want to see his face, let alone composing with him.

 _"Why are you so different today, I see you not as a friend but a girl... Is it because of_..." Hanbin read out loud his lyrics, squeezed his eyes shut so as to trace the feelings. Think back about all of your failed love attempt, Hanbin, suffer and wither miserably and complete this shit. "... _Be-because of ._.. uh, _your fucking poisonous beauty that almost stabs me blind_..."

Scratch that. This wouldn't do.

Sighing his soul out, he tore the paper away and started anew, his cheek pillowed on his palm. This time the pencil in his hand ran across the surface smoothly, but nothing of romance realm nor even close to that came out. It was probably not the brightest idea to waste his time which was supposed to be spent on college assignment to write a diss track, but he was in the mood to curse, a lot, so there was no helping it.

The phone next to his notebook made an abrupt noise, resulting in Hanbin throwing it a hateful glance, but he immediately lightened up as the sender's name appeared on the screen. His eyes glowed as he took in each and every word, a smile stretched on his face. He wasted no time to type back a reply, fingers flying across the screen in excitement. He put his phone back down with a dazed look and bent down to pick up the song he just trashed away. He flattened the paper, biting the end of his pencil and hummed quietly. Now he had something else to look forward to besides his death in Music class.

_From: B.I_

_Just what I need._


	2. Chapter 2

Hanbin was seemingly frozen in front of a coffee shop that he would normally never drop by in a normal Saturday afternoon. But today was no normal Saturday. It was circled with thick red marker on Hanbin's calendar and checked again and over again ever since Bobby confirmed with him the date and place for their meeting through email.

Cafe Noriter. What a nice name. Their coffee should also be superb. Hanbin hated coffee- unless it was served with a lot of milk, but this was Bobby's choice, so of course it should be superb.

He looked down to make sure he was properly presentable. Despite his whole morning being spent solely on deciding his outfit, he finally gave up and just went with an oversized hoodie and jeans, a black and white beanie sat on his neat hair. He hoped he looked generally swag, nervously so, just the way B.I should be.

What should he say first, though? " _Good morning, Mr. Bobby. It's me, B.I, pleasure to meet you"_?  Maybe too formal. " _'Ssup, bro. Your man B.I here."_? That sounded bad even inside Hanbin's mind.

Hanbin blushed a bit when he caught the funny look of a waitress in the cafe. He had been standing here for quite a while, after all. Deciding against letting his anxiety get the best of him, Hanbin took a deep breath, then he walked in.

 

 

Jiwon had dated before, obviously. However, in those dates never had he been the one to arrive first- 30 minutes ealier at that, as right now when he was waiting for another boy. He also never felt this nervous either. His palms were sweaty and his heart danced wildly inside his chest, and he jumped everytime the bell above the door of the cafe rang gleefully for a guest to come in. Jiwon checked his watch again. 3:20. B.I could be here anytime now.

As he indulged in imagining all the possible scenerios in their first meeting, mostly fantasizing about how B.I looked outside of his mp3, Jiwon didn't notice a pair of sneakers came into his view. Those white shoes stopped right in front of his table, and Jiwon's heart seemed to have taken a break in beating too.

He gulped, fingers curled in his pants as he slowly perked up. His eyes trailed upward, taking in the sight of skinny jeans and fingertips covered with long sleeves, lifting his gaze higher. And when his eyes finally found the other's face, the warm smile of his own was immediately washed off without a trace.

Of course, it had to be him. Who else could excellently ruin his day other than the almighty Kim Hanbin?

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Jiwon rudely spat out. And as expected Hanbin would reply with an equally malicious tone.

"Unlike you, I don't fancy poking my nose in others' business." He said with a very-Hanbin-ish scoff, effectively boiling Jiwon's blood.

"Your nose is not gonna have a happy ending if you don't get out of my sight now, Mr. Kim." Jiwon smiled back, rolling the last words on his tongue like it humoured him.

"I don't have time for kitty fight right now, _Mr. Kim_. You can reserve a slot on my schedule later." Hanbin replied without missing a beat, folding his arms in front of his chest as if declaring that he had no intention in leaving. "Give me back my seat."

"Your seat? Last time I check it doesn't have your name on it, or else I wouldn't let my pants touch it. They're new." Jiwon flatly said while sinking himself further into the chair, confirming his terriority. Hanbin threw a quick glance to the entrance of the cafe, seemingly worried, before turning back to Jiwon impatiently.

"Cut the bullshit, it's mine." Bobby had specifically instructed him to find the table in the corner, the one his prick of a classmate was taking over. He wouldn't let Jiwon ruin it all for him. "I-I always...uh... wait to pick up my sister here! She won't be able to find me if you take it!"

"Your sister can't detect you with your face?" Jiwon raised an eyebrow.

"Well yeah. She's five." Hanbin lied through his teeth. Sorry Hanbyul, oppa can't lose to this dumbass who doesn't know when to give up.

"It's 3:30. Isn't it time for you to go then?" Jiwon brought up his watch, smirking as if seeing through everything Hanbin made up. But Hanbin wouldn't be a piece of cake. He hated losing, so even if it was childish, he sat down on the seat across Jiwon, pleased with the annoyed frown on the latter's face.

"Still enough time for a cup of coffee." Hanbin smugly said, crossing his legs and leaning on the back of his chair like a silent challenge.

The waitress from before approached them to take order, then hurriedly left for the heavy tension clouding them.

They both sat in silence as if in some competition, determined to not look in the other's eyes. After a while finally a voice broke the cold atmosphere. It was Jiwon's voice, but didn't come from Jiwon. It came from _Hanbin's phone_.

 _"Call your friends and gather, let's party all night,_  
_Whoever throws up tissues, you'll get kicked out._  
_Right now I feel so hig--"_

"He-hello?" Hanbin had grabbed his phone and hastily pressed it to his ear, cutting off the song, face bright red. Jiwon couldn't catch what he was conversing about. All that ran through his mind was _Holy fucking shit Kim Hanbin sets his song as his ringtone what the fuck-_

"...Yes, okay. I know, bye." Hanbin mumbled before hanging up, cheeks burnt. He didn't quite know why but the stunned look Jiwon was giving him made him somewhat embarrased.

"What?" He covered his awkwardness with a grumpy grunt. In return Jiwon just eyed him as if he had just developed another head or something like that.

"That's Bobby." Jiwon said, still staring at Hanbin skeptically.

"I know." The latter replied.

"That's like hiphop stuff."

_"I know."_

"But you bashed B.I" Jiwon said with a scandalized tone, staring at the other intently as if he could read Hanbin's mind if he stared hard enough.

"B.I is not all that hiphop offers." Hanbin perked an eyebrow sarcastically and Jiwon refrained from jumping into another fan war, because he had something else as shocking happening here. Hanbin, the cocky bratty and proud Kim Hanbin, could have been Jiwon's fan all along. That was seriously too funny, and at the same time made Jiwon felt a bit smug for some reasons.

"So you like Bobby?" He cracked a smile while Hanbin was getting defensive.

"Yeah, so?"

"Why?" Jiwon asked, trying to not appear too excited.

Hanbin squinted at him suspiciously as if in fear that Jiwon could use his answer against him. After considering it, he shrugged.

"Because he makes music for himself." Hanbin said with a 'duh' tone. This time Jiwon couldn't restrain his curious expression.

"Huh? What does that mean?" He widened his eyes, seemingly forgot that he was supposed to be hateful towards Hanbin 24/7.

"That means he does music not for fame or profit, he does it to satisfy himself." Hanbin patiently explained. "His music feels genuine. He is happy when he performs happy song, he's just true to himself, and I like music that is not pretentious, that's why." He furrows his eyebrows. "Why are you smiling like an idiot?"

"Huh?" Jiwon woke up from his daze, not noticing that he was smiling from ear to ear. He regained control over his expression and put on a nonchalant face. "I still think B.I is better, though."

"I'm sorry that your taste is awful then." Hanbin snorted, somehow not as annoying as usual. "Bobby's voice and flow isn't what an amateur like B.I can compete with. He has a gifted raspy and aggressive tone that is just born for rapping, mind you."

"B.I just has his way with words that Bobby's messy lyrics can't rival." Jiwon's lips curved as he said. Provoking Hanbin was easy when it came to something he truly liked.

"Not a chance. Bobby clearly wins that kid in terms of wordplay and expressiveness." Hanbin, as expected, instantly took the bait and continued praising Jiwon unbeknowingly. "And his lyrics suit his style very well, such raw words pair perfectly with his rough voice like..."

"Like my voice?" Jiwon said, deliberately lowered his tone to make it husky. Hanbin glowed at it.

"That's right! It's just, like, incredibly charismatic and if he wants to, can be really sexy--"

Hanbin suddenly shut his mouth, seemingly having realized what he just said.

Scarlet colored his cheeks, and he murmured the rest of the sentence in a tiny voice. "... Yeah so I like Bobby."

"And I still prefer B.I" Jiwon brightly exclaimed, no trace of malice in his tone. He felt too smug right now to feel angry. Hanbin just outright confessed that he found Jiwon's voice sexy, he couldn't possibly ask for more twist in life.

Before any of them got to say anything further, Hanbin's phone rang loudly again. Bobby's grunting voice deepened the shade of red on Hanbin's cheeks.

"M-Mom?" He whined in his phone pitifully. They chatted a little before Hanbin hung up with a sigh.

"Right. I'm going now." He abruptly stood up. His mother just called to inform him that she was too busy so now he would have to pick up Hanbyul for real.

"You're going?" Jiwon said, slightly disappointed. He never thought he could ever have a talk with Hanbin without employing violence, but apparently it happened. It wasn't even that bad.

"Yup. Congrats on winning the seat." Hanbin said, his eyes twinkling with mischief. "And B.I still sucks."

"Yah!" Jiwon called after him, but Hanbin had already escaped the cafe, a laugh ringing behind him. A smile was drawn on Jiwon's own face as his mind wandered on Hanbin's acknowledgement of him. Maybe the kid's first ranking in class did say something, his praise had impact on Jiwon more than he thought. Hanbin made him feel happy, how crazy was that.

Jiwon continued to wait in the corner table till the afternoon sunlight falters and the ice in the two cups of coffee, one of which was filled with a ridiculous amount of milk, had melted.

It was their first meeting, but B.I never came.

 

 _From: Bobby_  
_You didn't come?_

 

 _From: B.I_  
_I did, but I couldn't find you :(_

 

 _From: Bobby_  
_:(_


	3. Chapter 3

On the weekends it was Hanbyul who shouldered the challenging mission of waking up her high-maintainance brother since she was the only one Hanbin wouldn't try to battle in order to go back to sleep. But this Sunday morning, Hanbin was woken up by Bobby.

It was Bobby's voice, to be precise, but it made Hanbin jump out of his skin nevertheless. He crawled out from his shelter made of blanket, eyes heavy with drowsiness and had to lose some time before successfully detecting the source of his ringtone. The rapper's voice sent blush creeping on his cheeks. He never wanted his favorite song from Bobby to be the reminder of an awkward incident.

Having finally got a hold of his phone, he yelled at it as soon as his finger hit the green symbol.

"Fuck you."

"Good morning to you too, Hanbinie." A deep laughter greeted him. "Is that how you normally converse with people calling you? You should be glad it's me. Not only am I handsome, I'm also very forgiving."

"You are special, hyung. I only ever swear at you." Hanbin mumbled grumpily as he flopped himself onto the bed again. "I made a custom ringtone for you."

"Aw really? You like me that much?"

"Nope. With you calling me fuck tons of times everyday for your nonsense, I can listen to _'Holup'_ just as many times."

In reply to his sour statement the other guy, labeled Song Minho, just burst out laughing amusedly. He, as a self-proclaimed-good-friend of Hanbin, was one of a few to make it into Hanbin's phonebook just for his exceptional persistence. And of course for his tolerance too, considering he was still being friends with Hanbin despite the frequent snarky remarks the younger threw at him all the time.

"There you go my savage little cutie pie. That's why I told you it was a good idea for you to sign up to the underground." Minho chuckled. "About what I told you, what do you think?"

"The underground stuff? Good for relieving stress, I guess."

" _Nein_ , the thing I told you yesterday. You hung up on me, remember?"

"Ah." Hanbin exclaimed as he recalled the sudden phonecall the previous afternoon when he was in the middle of an offline meeting with Bobby, which turned out to be an accidental encouter of him and Kim Jiwon.

At the time all he was trying to do was to cut off his loud ringtone, therefore he didn't really register that it was Minho calling him nor what the older boy had said to him. He just threw in some 'yes' and 'okay' then cut the call out of embarrassment. Just remembering it brought a palm to his face.

"Remind me again." He sighed and could almost imagine the older boy rolling eyes at him.

"So I was telling you about this underground cypher held next Thursday's night. And because you are an antisocial piece of shit I thought I should kindly ask you to come and make some friends." Minho said in one breath then stopped to gulp for air animatedly. "And. What do you think?"

"Did you just call me an antisocial piece of shit?"

"Aren't you?"

"I am. So no, I won't go."

"Hanbinieee" Minho cried with an annoying high-pitched voice. "I was entrusted with gathering guests. Can't you do just a little favor for me?"

"Yes, only if I can gain something from it." Hanbin replied in monotone.

"Then how about this." The older boy said with a businessman tone. "I'm planning to invite Bobby too and I can ensure you that he will come. You always say you want to see him onstage, right?"

Hanbin opened his eyes just a bit wider. He bit his lips, considering his options before asking back skeptically:

"How can you ensure his attendance?"

"You just need to say yes and if I tell him that B.I is gonna be there, he will come running." Minho chortled. "Just think about it. You guys can even have a collab there."

That caught Hanbin's attention and he deepened his frown. Cypher with Bobby was something he could only dream of, but when there was a possibility of it actually happening, he found himself hesitating. Would he be a really worthwhile partner for Bobby? Would the other rapper actually want it at all? They hadn't even met yet (Thanks a lot, Jiwon), so he could in no way know for sure if they were a perfect match.

"Just sign me up for now." Hanbin decided after thinking for a while. "I will confirm with him if he can go," - if he wanted to collaborate with Hanbin - "but just in case, you should still call him for certainty."

"Holy shit, you got his phone number already?" Minho whistled teasingly. " 'Atta boy."

"Just his mail address." Hanbin grumpily modified with flushed cheeks. He would want Bobby's phone number though, he thought he should ask for it if they ever met.

"Ah, platonic mail-friends, how cute." The other sighed dreamily, then laughed when Hanbin told him to shut up. "Then I look forward to your good news, Hanbinie, whether it's about the cypher or your love life."

"Go away."

Hanbin then hang up on the maniac laughter of the older boy with a scowl. Phone still in hand, he contemplated a bit before pressing the mail icon and proceeded to type away. The frown on his face finally loosened as he hit the send button.

He could finally know what it would be like to see Bobby rapping live on stage and even better, do a collab with the boy. The thought of Bobby's raspy voice mixing with his own in a track belonged to them only drew a smile on his face. Hurriedly he sat up, carelessly put on some clothes and grabbed his phone, along with his notebook on the desk and opened the bedroom's door.

 

 _From: B.I_  
_You free today? Can we meet? I'm deciding the place this time._

 

 _From: Bobby_  
_Always ready :D_  
  


 

 

There were seven billions people on the planet and about fifty one millions in South Korea, so the chances for one to encounter a person twice, accidentally and all in his important appointments, should be less than one percent.

With that in mind, Jiwon must be some kind of defying-logic being, or just exceptionally unlucky, because at this moment when he was supposed to meet up with B.I, the inteference had come again in the name of Kim Hanbin.

Jiwon couldn't believe it, he was looking forward to this so much since the other rapper had messaged him the address of the cafe- a different one from last time, and Hanbin as a B.I's antifan still managed to show up here and would possibly ruin it all. He was even sitting at the green table adorned with dandelion which B.I told him to find, focusing on scribbling into his note.

He didn't even notice Jiwon approaching him from behind, so when the latter poked a finger at his shoulder, he flinched violently and let out a sound like a cat having his tail stepped on. His wide and terrified eyes as he snapped around almost made Jiwon laugh out loud.

 _"You._ " Hanbin gawked in disbelief. Same, Jiwon wanted to say.

"Yeah, me. Now if you don't mind, I need you to leave this table instantly when I'm still being polite." Jiwon annouced while checking his watch. He should shoo Hanbin away before B.I came or else the latter wouldn't be able to find him.

"Fuck off," Hanbin, on the other hand, had seemingly given up on the courtesy act. "This table is mine."

"Do you own at least one table in every cafe in the country?" Jiwon snorted as the other boy stretched his arms across the surface of the table possessively.

"No, I only need this one. There are plenty left, go get yourself one." Hanbin muttered as he landed his concentration on his note again, apparently chose to ignore the existence of Jiwon, to which the other wouldn't tolerate.

Jiwon didn't really want to resolve to this, he would look like a bully, but Hanbin gave him no choice. So he gripped the notebook from under Hanbin's hands and lifted it up in the air, the other hand pushed at Hanbin's face as the boy jumped from his seat so fast, hands flailing around panickingly.

"Give it back!" Hanbin screamed, drawing some eyes to the two of them. Jiwon immediately hushed him, but Hanbin seemed a bit out of his mind at the loss of his note.

"Fuck you, give me my notebook you fuckface!" He roared.

"Okay, okay, but you have to change your table. I have to meet someone here and we agreed to choose the green one..."

"I don't care! Give it back to me!"

"Go to another table!"

"Fuck no!"

They were attracting attention from everyone in the cafe and Hanbin didn't seem to feel too abashed for yelling like a mad man at Jiwon, so the latter decided to surrender. He caught Hanbin's fists hitting him and gave him back the precious notebook. Hanbin immediately hugged it tight to his chest when a tored page slipped from the note, and Jiwon was the faster in the two. He caught the paper mid-air and just had a glimpse of it before Hanbin yanked it back angrily.

"Your compose note?" Jiwon asked and Hanbin glared at him.

"None of your business." The boy mumbled and dropped himself on the chair, not leaving no matter what. Jiwon tilted his head, wondering if he saw it wrong. If he didn't mistake it, there wasn't only a love song written in the piece of paper he caught.

"So you write rap track too?" That, or Hanbin wrote love songs with too much cursing. As though confirming his suspicion, Hanbin's ears turned beet red.

"I know you listen to hip hop, but rapping? That's new." Jiwon folded his arms, looking down at the boy below engrossedly. Then something dawned on him. "Wait a minute. Do you hate B.I because you are actually jealous of him?"

"Wha--?!" Hanbin turned around and scrunched his nose in a funny expression. This Kim Jiwon guy was just too much. Now he was accusing Hanbin of being jealous of himself?

"That's ridiculous. Of all great rappers there are why would I be jealous of him?" Hanbin said with a grimace. "It would make more sense if you mentioned GD or Zico."

"Aren't them a bit too high-scale for you?" Jiwon's smirk went upward as he teased. In reply Hanbin just gave him a sulky pout.

"What do you know about rapping?" He murmured. Oh, I don't know, enough to be your idol? - Jiwon snickered inwardly. Instead of voicing those thought out loud, he shrugged.

"You said that I have a similar voice to that of Bobby, didn't you? I bet I could be big if I try."

"You wish." Hanbin snorted, and Jiwon had to try his best to hold back from blurting out that he was Bobby in the flesh. He wanted to go at this a bit longer.

"Your voice alone isn't everything, rapping requires skills and innate talents, which I assume you don't have." Hanbin proceeded flatly. "Professionals like Beenzino or San-E don't really need deep voice to impress, their rthymth and lyrics are what shine above all."

"At least you have good taste." Jiwon muttered at the mention of the rappers' names, to which Hanbin gave a laugh.

"What do you often listen to then?" He put an elbow on the table to have a better look at Jiwon. The latter just shrugged again.

"All kind of stuff. Masta Wu, Dok2, Epik High. B.I, too, of course." He emphasized, and Hanbin inwardly gasped. People who liked Epik High couldn't be bad people, though.

"Putting B.I beside such names is biased, man." Hanbin said, just to annoy the other and succeeded. Jiwon scoffed at him dismissively.

"Oh yeah? I think you are just bad-mouthing him out of your own inferiority," Jiwon perked an eyebrow provokingly, then gestured at Hanbin's lyrics notebook. "Bet you got nothing there comparable to him."

His words got on Hanbin's nerves and he wouldn't be himself if he backed down. Feeling humoured and angry at the same time, he shoved the note at Jiwon's chest, silently watched as the other unfolded it and read inside. If only Jiwon knew he was reading B.I's original works, Hanbin smirked as Jiwon's eyes widened.

"Hey, this part. Isn't it better if you replace "Bill Gates" with "Gatsby"? It still holds the same meaning and rthymes better with "luxury", right?"

"Huh?" Hanbin found himself stunned as he peeked in, his brows furrowed. "Eh? You're right. I didn't think of that."

"And because you have repeated "Chillin'" thrice in the hook, why don't you repeat the verbs in the main track too? Like, sense of consistency."

What the hell, that was a fucking helpful idea. Hanbin bit his lip as he squinted at the other boy who suddenly smiled at something in his note.

"This." He showed a page to Hanbin. "What is this called?"

" _Anthem_." Hanbin said. He just started writing it not long ago.

"I like the paralleled comparison here. It's cute." Jiwon chuckled a bit, to which Hanbin narrowed his eyes. He didn't just call Hanbin's cool brag track 'cute'.

"But this is meant for a duo, right? It's missing a verse here, and "Dumb and Dumber" should indicate two." Jiwon grinned delightfully while his eyes turned into thin lines. "Can't you think of a better phrase other than that?"

"Can you?" Hanbin pouted. He wrote this for his dream collab with Bobby, so of course it was missing one verse. In reply, Jiwon looked up as if deep in thought.

"Yongi and Yeongil? [1]" He said, raised an eyebrow when Hanbin burst out laughing.

"What the hell? That's just as lame." Hanbin snorted. "Then you might as well add "Seo Sunam and Ha Cheongil" [2]"

"Hey, that's actually quite good." Jiwon said, bringing a hand to his chin while thinking. "What about " Zhang Guo Rong and Zhou Lun Fa" [3]?"

"Cabbage Guru and Radish Guru [4]" Hanbin added, face so serious it made Jiwon hunched from laughing.

"For real?" He laughed so hard he had to grab Hanbin's shoulder to still himself. The touch sent Hanbin jolting lightly. Jiwon had much higher body temparature than him.

Hanbin's eyes darted from those beaming eye-smiles to the notebook in Jiwon's hand, a wild thought ran across his mind. Before he could stop himself he had already blurted out:

"Do you want to write the rest with me?"

"Huh?" Jiwon blinked stupidly at him. "This song?"

"Yes."

"You want me," Jiwon pointed a finger at himself disbelieving. If it were Hanbin he wouldn't believe either. "To duet with you?"

Hanbin took a minute to reflect on himself. He didn't even in his wildest dream think that someday he would give a song -which he wrote for him and Bobby, to Kim Jiwon, but there was no helping that the other's ideas went so well with him. Jiwon even fixed his lyrics, and Hanbin felt fine with it, that was something.

"Yeah" Hanbin decided. "We have to work for an assignment anyway. Why don't we make this our group's presentation?"

Jiwon's bewildered eyes made Hanbin contracted a bit from embarrassment. Ever since the day they were grouped together, there seemed to be a silent competition between them in which the one to talk to the other about the assignment first would lose. Their hatred towards each other was supposed to surpass their fear of an 'F', and both of them would never have guessed that Hanbin would be the one to give in.

"You don't have to say yes," Hanbin muttered. How could this be, Kim Hanbin could have been an incredibly inconfident individual who never believed there was anyone wanting to work with him.

"Okay." Jiwon said, flipping through pages of note while Hanbin perked up with eyes gleaming in astonishment. "But with one condition."

"What?"

"I want us to present a ballad song." Because Hanbin had condescended first, Jiwon thought he should gift the other with the choice of genre. "I see that you have tons of them here. And I always want to try rapping in slow-tempo songs." He laughed at the slightly disappointed expression on Hanbin's face. "We can still write 'Anthem' together some other time, alright?"

"Are you confident you can rap for love songs?" Hanbin smirked. Another competition.

"Not much experience, but you can instruct me." Jiwon accepted it unhesitatingly. "Tuesday, here, same time as today. Is that alright?"

"I don't have better thing to do anyway." Hanbin said, masking his interest with a flat voice, but his small smile following had given it all away and for a second Jiwon almost forgot what he really came here for.

They ended up sitting together in the green table with dandelion, writing a love song for duet. Neither Bobby nor B.I had shown up at all.  
  


Jiwon's fingers hesitated at the 'send' button. He knew he sounded like an annoying needy girlfriend right now, but in both of their agreed meetings B.I never came. At this point he wasn't sure if B.I wanted to see him anymore.

_You didn't come. Are you making fun of me?_

It could be a misunderstanding. B.I could have got lost on his way, or something came up suddenly and he forgot to inform Jiwon. He wished it was a misunderstanding.

Maybe he was taking it a bit too seriously, he thought and added an emo " _:(_ " at the end of the sentence. This should be alright, he thought. Before he was able to hit the send button, someone suddenly called.

"Hello?"

"Bobby?" Answering him was a deep voice. "It's Mino. Heard about the cypher this Thursday?"

"Are you calling from a different phone? It's saying 'unknown' on my screen."

"Ah yes, that's part of the trick." Mino chuckled mischievously. "But first, the cypher. You go or not?"

"Nah. Caught in college project." Jiwon lied. They could finish the song before Thursday, he was just too lazy to go. He loved parties, but he was not in the mood for such right now.

"Introverts as fuck, you and B.I." Mino clicked his tongue. "But even B.I said he would go."

"He would?" Jiwon instantly sat up and voice urgent, which caused the other to laugh.

"You two are so cute, you know that?" Mino said teasingly. "Yes he would. You can trust my words. I'm with B.I right now, I can ensure that."

"Y-You ..." Jiwon stuttered, then as though realization hit him, he looked at his phone's screen. "So this is..."

 _"Hai._ B.I's phone number." Mino said smugly. "A present for you. If you go you'll have even more."

With that he hung up, giggles graced his last words.

Jiwon looked at the new phone number in his call history, then opened his unsent message. Thinking for a second, he erased it.

He would try to believe in B.I again. This time, he would demand a face-to-face explanation.  
  


Song Minho felt so proud at himself as he slipped the phone back in the pocket of Hanbin's jacket, which was left carelessly on the back of his seat. After a while Hanbin came back from the toilet, clueless of his mischief and genuinely happy for being treated to dinner.

These two are too dumb, he mused. Not his business, anyway.  
  


 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \-----------------------  
> [1]Main characters from the manga Shonan Junai Gumi who fight at first and then become friends. Original Japanese names are Eikichi Onizuka and Ryuji Danma.
> 
> [2] A comedian duo
> 
> [3] Two Chinese actors from the movie “A Better Tomorrow”
> 
> [4] Characters from a cartoon called “Once Upon A Time” (배추도사 무도사의 옛날예적에). They’re two little monk-looking dudes.
> 
> Source: https://colorcodedlyrics.com/2015/11/ikon-anthem-ilioneola-b-i-amp-bobby


	4. Chapter 4

"I know that I chose ballad for us because you might even have a museum for it" Jiwon said slowly, tapping his fingers on the table while staring disbelievingly down at the notebook full of cursive writings. "But these are too many."

On a seat across from him, Hanbin just responded with a grumpy frown.

"Seven are not that many." He muttered in objection, then sighed when Jiwon raised an eyebrow at him. He murmured with a scowl as if each word hurt his tongue. "Okay, you can read and select some that you like. We can discuss to choose just one to finalize."

Jiwon nodded lightly with a pleased expression, the _"there's the good boy_ " went unspoken. Hanbin laid back in his chair as he watched the other shifted his focus to the note, occasionally flipped the paper or squinted his already thin eyes to decipher Hanbin's hand-writings.

It was a quiet afternoon, which normally Hanbin wouldn't waste on going out of his bed and- what the hell- doing group study. But he did, and with his-- no, B.I's fanboy, Kim Jiwon nevertheless, so there should not be anything more surprising here.

He was still not really sure if this was a good idea, trying to cooperate with Jiwon and all. It was just a decision on the spur of the moment when there were eye-smiles too charming and hands too warm and then Hanbin just blurted out without thinking. He gave the song he wrote for him and Bobby to Jiwon. He might have had a fever, one that ate up people's brain and urged them to make peace with their archenemy. But then Jiwon said they should do a ballad together. Maybe Jiwon was the one to catch an illness, one that made its victims stupider than they already were.

"They are mostly unfinished." Jiwon announced as he had done reading.

"That's where you contribute." Hanbin calmly said as if he did it on purpose. Of course he didn't. He always strayed to writing diss tracks while composing love songs.

Jiwon flipped through the pages again, seemingly looking for something. When he found it he spinned the note around so Hanbin could see it too.

"This one is good." He pointed at a song named " _Today_ ", then flipped to show another- " _Airplane_ ". "But I like this a bit better."

" _'Airplane_ " isn't completed though." Hanbin said. "Not only the rap part is missing, the bridge is not yet available, too."

"Can't you finish it before the deadline?"

"Nope. I wrote it a long time ago when my crush went study abroad. Feelings are gone." Hanbin shrugged, causing the other to creak a smile.

"Too bad, I like these lyrics." Jiwon said, words laced with fondness. "Can't believe a potty-mouth like you can write this beautifully."

"Shut the fuck up."

They went into silence when Jiwon took time to read in a bit more. All of a sudden he perked up, face dead serious, making Hanbin jolted a little.

"Wait a minute. If we are doing ballad who's gonna sing?" Jiwon said with a tone often used in horror movies when the characters discovered one of them was the killer. Hanbin squinted at him skeptically.

"You didn't think about that when you suggest this?"

"Totally forgot." The other admitted, a bit bashfully. "Can you sing?"

"Of course. People say I've got a nice voice." Hanbin said smugly, then proceeded on singing a line from one of his own songs. He only stopped at the grimace on Jiwon's face.

"So you can't." Jiwon concluded, ignored the offended expression of Hanbin. "I never try singing. But drastic situation calls for drastic measure."

He cleared his throat, pinked a bit, then sang the same line Hanbin just did.

When he was done, Hanbin was gawking at him because shit. This guy sang really well. Not skillfully. Just, really really fucking well. There was something about his raspy voice that was so attractive, Hanbin couldn't really put it into words.

"How was it?" Jiwon inquired, and Hanbin blushed as he realized he had been staring at the other for a solid minute. Embarrassed, he snapped.

"Super bad. And you told me I can't sing."

He only meant it to be a joke, but Jiwon seemed to actually bought it. He looked up and hummed thoughtfully.

"That's no good. If neither of us can sing we can't present a ballad song..." Before Hanbin could clarify that he was only joking, Jiwon had snapped his fingers and turned to look with bright eyes. "Oh, I know. I have this friend, his name is Kim Jinhwan, a year above us and he is really good at singing. Like, real good."

"O-Oh... But, isn't he in another group already?"

"Shit, that's true." Jiwon clicked his tongue, and his face scrunched up in an expression so struggling Hanbin had to reassure him.

"I will try contacting the professor to see if we can ask Jinhwan to help. It's a composing project, after all, so we should be able to ask for support in the presentation part."

Jiwon immediately brightened up at his words. His eyes lit up merrily and before Hanbin could register what he was doing, Jiwon had already leaned in close, a big and warm hand shot forward and ruffled Hanbin's hair a bit too roughly.

"That's great! I'm counting on you!" He smiled, eyes turned crescents and breath stucked in Hanbin's throat. He had never been touched so ... so _friendly_ before.

As if recognizing his own doing, Jiwon stopped, staring into Hanbin's eyes, seemingly stunned himself. He slowly retreated his hand, then awkwardly sat back down. In a moment both of them averted their eyes from each other, face flushed. Hanbin's hair remained unruly under the unexpected attack. And Jiwon's hand was just as warm as last time.

When the silence weighed too much to bear, Hanbin was the first to speak up. He looked anywhere but at Jiwon as he said:

"So... I will ask professor and tell you his answer tomorrow."

"Th-That sounds like a good idea." Jiwon stuttered, nodding like a confused chicken, his hand toyed with the ripped fabric on his pants restlessly.

"Yeah." Hanbin said, feeling a bit stupid, then caustiously he stood up, assuming that he had nothing more to do here. Jiwon instantly turned to look at him, only to hastily turned away when meeting his eyes.

"You leaving already?" He said, and Hanbin might have imagined it, but Jiwon sounded just a bit sad.

"I think this is it for now. I will try to write more for " _Airplane_ " when I get home, but for now let's have " _Today_ " as our finalized song." Hanbin said as he collected his notebook and stuffed it in his bag. "You can start writing rap for either of them and show me later, okay?"

"Okay." Jiwon nodded absentmindedly and pressed his lips into a thin line. He looked puzzled for a moment, then finally decided to say when Hanbin was about to leave. "Um... Do you know about the cypher this Thursday? I heard that Bobby is going."

"I do." Hanbin said, looked back at the other curiously. "You going?"

"I think so." Jiwon muttered, sounding unsure of himself. "It seems like B.I hasn't decided to come or not so..."

It should be funny, Hanbin should find it funny that there was someone this worked up over him without knowing that he was right here in front of them. But instead Hanbin actually softened at the worried expression displayed on Jiwon's face, so he said, rather gently:

"Newbies are not usually welcomed at these events, so I think he might be hesitating over that, but. If there is someone he wants to see there, he will definitely come." He smiled a little. "And I heard he likes Bobby."

Jiwon widened his eyes, then slowly, a huge grin stretched across his face. It looked like sunrise.

"You're right." He said, his laughter a bit too endearing. "Hey, you know what. We should go there together, buy some popcorn, watch some MCs throw some sick lines and I will shove popcorn in your mouth whenever you try to comment on B.I"

Hanbin actually broke into laughter at that. His hand pressed against his stomach as he said between laugh.

"That doesn't sound half bad." He said, a bit out of breath and Jiwon noticed how it seemed like a balloon was blown up inside his chest at the realization that he made this happen. He put a smile on Hanbin's face, and that wasn't half bad either.  


 

The next day went by uneventfully, except for the sudden visit of Hanbin to Jiwon's locker, and Jiwon was half enthralled by the way Hanbin's cheeks flushed lightly as he told them that the professor agreed to their arrangement, half entertained to see Jinhwan's face when Hanbin  himself come talk to them.

"Is that so? You've done well." Jiwon smiled brightly at the other boy, making him mutter something incoherently with his head low, ears beet red and Jiwon couldn't help bringing up his hand to touch Hanbin's hair, this time only petting it lightly.

"Then let's gather up this Thursday--" Ah, the cypher, he almost forgot. "Friday. I'll try to complete my part in the mean time."

Hanbin nodded timidly, glancing at Jinhwan with curiosity. Then probably thinking that he was being rude, he averted his gaze and bowed.

"Then I'll get going."

Jiwon watched his back as Hanbin left, and when he turned to look at Jinhwan, the older boy had a nasty grin on his face.

"No, hyung. It's not like that." Jiwon tried to make his voice serious but his cheeks also started to heat up.

"I haven't said anything." Jinhwan smirked cunningly. "You even sell me out in order to have the boy approach you at school?"

"N-No! I just forgot to ask you." Jiwon said, knowing that it sounded weak to his own ears.

"Who would have thought... To think you have called him a brat just a week ago." Jinhwan heaved a melodramatical sigh, making the younger shove him lightly on the shoulder.

"If I know you would be like this I would have asked Junhoe instead." Jiwon murmured, trying to sound more sulky.

"Don't worry, I'll tell him." Jinhwan said. "We will laugh at you guys together."

"It's nothing, really. We are grouped together, I should at least be friendly."

"Yeah right. Wait for a week and see what is " _friendly_ "," Jinhwan snickered wickedly. "Bet you will be calling him a brat in bed then.

"Shut up!"  


 

It was Thursday night, and Jiwon was 30-minute-early, again.

He remembered the same situation happening before, only that right now the one he was waiting for was Hanbin instead of B.I. He honestly never guessed himself and Hanbin could ever establish this kind of friendly (?) relationship, but considering the current circumstance where he was waiting for the other boy in front of the club's entrance, worrying if he appeared too sloppy and constantly checking his watch, it was clearly happening. He kind of started to take a liking in Hanbin. No big deal.

Jiwon knew what this looked like, but he refused to say the word out loud. _A date_ , a voice snickered in his head, somehow sounded disturbingly like Jinhwan. He felt his cheeks painted scarlet as he justified himself out loud, to both spiritual Jinhwan and himself.

"We are not like that!"

"Like what?"

Came a voice intruding his personal face and for a moment Jiwon thought his heart might have jumped to his throat. He snapped his head to the source of the voice, alarmed eyes then squinted confusedly. There was a man standing next to him, back against the wall and all smiley. Not someone that he knew.

"Sorry if I'm being nosy but I saw you standing here for a while. Can't get through the security? Me too. Don't you think they are being too stingy to newbies?" The stranger said before Jiwon could even open his mouth. The other had slanted eyes with glint of mischief and a high-pitched voice. He spoke so fast he sounded like being fast-fowarded. "I'm Lee Seunghoon, by the way. You are?"

"Um... Kim Jiwon." He muttered, much with puzzlement. "You said 'newbies'?"

"Uh, yeah. Bet you never heard of my name, right?" Seunghoon said with a carefree laugh, seemingly not offended by Jiwon's timid nod. "It's okay. I'm here to make people remember my name."

"They don't welcome newbies?" Jiwon asked. Hanbin was saying something like this too.

"Yup. Bunch of old shoes with inferiority complex." Seunghoon chuckled. "They not welcoming ain't gonna stop me from breaking in though. I'm also here to see someone."

"Huh?" Jiwon made an abrupt noise as he widened his eyes at the other. Hanbin's words came rolling in his mind.

" _If there is someone he wants to see there, he will definitely come."_

"It'll be hard to seek him, since he is quite a big name in the underground." Seunghoon continued, his face stern and tone sharpened. "Nevertheless, I need to meet him no matter what."

"Wait..." Jiwon straightened his back and focused wholely on the other. It couldn't be- "Are you...."

"Here you are, hotshot! Been looking for you everywhere!" A hand suddenly slung around Jiwon's shoulder and Mino came into his view, grinning cheerfully. "Come here! I've saved the opening performance for you and the mic is not gonna rap itself."

With that the older rapper grabbed his arm and dragged him inside the club. In a rush the only thing Jiwon could do was to grasp a seemingly stunned and amazed Seunghoon and pulled him along.

"Holy cow, you are a pro?!" Seunghoon appeared to finally find back his voice as he stopped gaping and started yelling excitedly. "And you acquaint Mino? Like, real Mino?! Sick!"

Jiwon gave him a faint smile and all of his nerves were running wild. He wasn't totally convinced, but maybe, just maybe, if he dared to try, he could put together pieces of the belief that he had been giving up on. So he tried.

"Seunghoon, I'm gonna do the opening performance for tonight and if you don't mind," It didn't feel right. Let's just hope it would turn out right. "Would you collab with me?"

In a second those slanted eyes widened in astonishment and the next, Seunghoon had a challenging smirk on his face as he replied.

"Sure."  


 

Hanbin was being late. He was fucking late and had to run all his might to the night club. Traffic was worse than he expected, and as he yelled at Minho on his phone, he had already been out of breath.

"Stop nagging, I'm almost there!"

"I'm telling the guards to let you in. Hurry up, Bobby is taking the opening performance!"

If that weren't the most motivational thing Hanbin had ever heard in his life.

So he arrived two minutes earlier than his actual capacity, stopped to catch breath and scanned around to find Jiwon. Nowhere to be seen. Understandable, Hanbin was so late.

At Minho's request, Hanbin was let in without hindrance as a special guest. He cautiously stepped inside and was immediately overwhelmed by the amount of human- dancing wildly and noisily shouting human, in the club. It would be almost impossible to find Jiwon now, but Hanbin only stopped looking for him when a familiar deep voice, surely belonged to Song Minho, announced:

 _"Welcome, party people, rappers, rightful as well as uninvited guests_." He said with a playful tone, to which the crowd laughed along. _"I'm Mino, your humble host tonight, who will make sure that everyone here is having a good time."_

_"Now, the important opening perf. I have just literally pushed this guy on the stage and this is gonna be totally freestyle, no shit. Well who else could be more trustworthy with the holy mission as the mood setter than my boy BOBBY ?!"_

The name of the rapper came with a loud cheer from the crowd and in a milisecond Hanbin's attention was snapped to the stage where all the lights had gathered. Two human figures stumbled on the stage and Hanbin squinted his eyes, could not really make out the lines. No sooner had he pushed himself through the crowd to get close than a voice suddenly pierced through his ears, vigorous and full of impact and _familiar_.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen." A raspy chuckle. Hanbin heard his heart banging against his ribcage as if trying to tear it apart as he widened his eyes in the light. And finally he could see.

Crescents eyes. Toothy smile. Fingers that were so warm on Hanbin's hair, now wrapped firmly around the microphone.

"This is Bobby and his new friend Seunghoon, presenting to you the fucking best collab ever!"  
And there Hanbin found him. On Bobby's stage, there he found Kim Jiwon.  
  


 

 _It's different_.

A voice seethed inside his mind. Not Jinhwan's voice but his own. _It's different_.

B.I had a high-pitched tone and so did Seunghoon. Their flow was fast and their rhythm was of instinctive aggressiveness. But it was different. He could never mistake B.I's voice. Not him, the one who had listened to that voice hundreds of time.

But as he stood there, growling into the mic, conquering the stage with Seunghoon, he wished that he hadn't noticed. He wished he could just let the moment swallow his rational mind, let himself be fooled. Because if he could just please do so, B.I could really be existing. Stupid or whatever he might be, right now B.I felt farther from reach than ever, he started to have such thought as maybe, B.I was never real, at least to him.

If being fooled would increase the chances that B.I did come to see him as promise, so let he be.  
  


When Hanbin found out that Bobby was Kim Jiwon all along, Jiwon was hoping that B.I was Lee Seunghoon.  
  



	5. Chapter 5

Jiwon was lying in his bed, face in his pillow and limbs spreading like a starfish. It was nine in the morning and he was wide awake already. That wasn't normal, by the way. Maybe he was having too many worries nowadays, there was no more room for relaxation.

Or, he might have just slept through a day to the following morning. Pleasant thought.

Turning his face aside, he had to squint to check the screen of the phone he had in hand. Friday. He hadn't slept through it, damn.

His thumb swiped across the screen, and a note instantly popped up. There it was, his cause of anxiety ever since yesterday.

 

 

 _"Yongsan park 11am_  
_the hand sculpture_  
_its Seunghoonie, btw"_

 

 

_"Hey, where are you going?" Jiwon called and ran after the other rapper. They had just finished their opening stage for the night and Seunghoon was hastily retreating to the backstage, looking back and forth cautiously. He whispered loudly in reply:_

_"I saw the security making their way to the stage. They must have realized that I'm not invited."_

_"So you're going now?"_

_"Duh, going out on my own is better than being thrown out, no?" Seunghoon deadpanned. His eyes then glowed with amusement as his lips were tugged up in a lop-sided grin. "Besides, I've seen the one I wanted to see."_

_Jiwon blinked a few times, mouth opened and closed in an useless attempt to speak up. He heard footsteps behind them and Seunghoon started to freak out._

_"Shit, gotta flee!"_

_"W-Wait!" Jiwon abruptly grabbed the other's wrist, pulled him back and ignored his complaint. "Sorry, I have something to ask you and... um..."_

_"Bad timing, then." Seunghoon threw a quick glance to the stage behind them, then: "Ok, gimme your phone."_   
  


 

 

Jiwon' eyes traced each word that the other person had typed on his screen, then heaved a heavy sigh.

" _Are you B.I?"_ All he had to do was to voice that sentence out loud, and then he wouldn't have had to lay here like a dead weight, regretting and getting all upset over it. Just one sentence away from peace.

But what if Seunghoon said 'no'? What if B.I hadn't appeared last night at all, just like he always did? What if it had been determined that Jiwon would never ever get to find the other?

And he remembered himself running to the entrance of the club just to find no trace of Hanbin last night, and he kept finding and never found. He would never want to go through that feeling again.

But he also didn't want to lay here forever with his wonderings and what ifs. In the least, he just wanted an answer.

With another sigh he sat up, taking his jacket as he flung the door open. He had to clear things up no matter how it might turn out.

Friday. A part of him felt like he had forgotten something, but he couldn't bring himself to recall what it was.  
  


 

 

"That shithead, pea-brained, dimwitted stupid idiot."

Jinhwan seethed through his teeth. "He must have forgotten that we have the project appointment on Friday!"

Across of him, Kim Hanbin let out a small confusing sound like a whining puppy, or something like that. His gaze dropped low and his hand absentmindedly mixing the milk with the coffee. A rather reserved individual, Jinhwan figured. He just couldn't deduce what the kid might have done to offend Jiwon so badly. Well, except Jiwon didn't seem so offended anymore these days.

"So I heard that you composed the songs." Jinhwan said in an attempt to be friendly. " _'Today'_ and _'Airplane'_ , right? I like them a lot."

He had even learnt by heart the lyrics for a certain bestfriend of his would not stop singing and complimenting those songs every freaking day. "Don't tell Hanbin I said so"- Jiwon had threatened, so Jinhwan added:

"Jiwon used all of his vocabulary to praise them. I think he fell in love with them even."

"R-really," Hanbin looked up, briefly met eyes with Jinhwan and immediately averted his gaze. Red soon colored his cheeks. "Glad you liked them."

"Jiwon only ever listens to hiphop stuff, you see, so it's kinda rare for him to like songs like these so much." Jinhwan said, finding himself enjoying the sight of a flustered Hanbin more than he should. The boy, as expected, then blushed and pressed his lips together, looking as if being burnt with embarassment.

Jinhwan didn't know, however, that there was something more than just his teasing that made Hanbin tense with anxiousness. He threw a discreet glance at Jinhwan, bit his lower lip over hesitation.

Did Jinhwan know that Jiwon was Bobby?

Then again, everyone might have known that already, except Hanbin. Despite him seeing Jiwon performing as Bobby with his very own eyes, his first reflexive act was denial. He didn't believe, couldn't believe, that the Bobby that he admired, the artist that he respected the most, was actually his prick of a classmate all along.

He didn't believe, but he had to accept, because thinking back about it, everything made sense. The incidents where Jiwon always accidentally appeared at the same time and places that Bobby was supposed to. The similarity that their voices shared, the composing capacity. It was clear as day, and what Hanbin couldn't accept was his own stupidity in never noticing the obvious, and that he was being a total fanatic for Bobby in front of Jiwon. God. He wanna die right now. No, he wanted to erase his own memory first and then die, so at least he wouldn't have to feel ashamed even in death.

"U-um..." Clearing his throat, he earned Jinhwan's attention right away as he said timidly. "About Jiwon..."

The older waited, but after a minute Hanbin couldn't manage to say a word. Jinhwan concentrating on him was making him somewhat nervous. Swallowing thickly, he opened his mouth to try again, but to no avail. He just didn't know where to start.

".... You know what, nevermind." At last he sighed. "I will ask Jiwon himself."

Maybe the boy himself would be able to explain throughoutly- that was Hanbin's excuse. He did wonder why Jiwon had not just told him that he was Bobby already, but then he remembered himself having done the very same thing. That asshole must have felt so full of himself, seeing Hanbin fawning over him like that.

Just like how Hanbin had enjoyed Jiwon heaping praise on him. Hanbin blushed. _So Bobby liked him like that._

The pit of his stomach felt tingly and excitement blossomed in his chest as he fantasized how Jiwon would look if he knew his idolized artist was Hanbin. The thought drew a grin on his face unbeknowingly, he had to bite his lips to contain it at Jinhwan's curious glance.

He had decided that he had to talk face to face with Jiwon. Straightening his back on the seat, he waited, now with brand new motivation.

The rest was history. Jiwon never did come.  
  
  


 

 

It was half past twelve- the time that the sun shined the most fiercely, when Jiwon arrived at the park as promise. They should have chosen a cafe instead, he silently whined, but looked around to find their meeting place anyway.

It wasn't difficult to find Seunghoon at all, especially when he was standing in front of a giant sculpture of a hand at the lunch time when nobody was around. Even if he were to stand in a crowd, that tall figure with bright colored clothes, slanted smiley eyes and excited waving hands could not be mistaken for anyone else.

"Hungry?" He chirped merrily as greeting, hands offered Jiwon a paper bag with two sandwiches inside, which Jiwon eyed with tremendous gratitude. He hadn't eaten breakfast. But first, they needed to escape from this awful heat.

"Let's find somewhere to sit." Jiwon suggested, pointing to a bench under a huge tree. A relieved sigh slipped from his lips as they sat under the shade, hiding from the sun.

Jiwon did not realize that Seunghoon had been watching him until he had devoured half the sandwich he was given. With a mouthful of food, he muffled:

"What?"

"Nothing," Seunghoon chuckled. "You just look younger than I expected. I've always thought that Bobby must be a thirty-something gangster with a motorcycle and tattoos all over, and you are... well, not so much like that," He then squinted his eyes doubfully. "Are you?"

"I'm in university." Jiwon laughed, managed to swallow the food with a big gulp. "I do have tattoos though, but nothing too edgy."

"You're younger than me." Seunghoon gasped comically with a hand covering his mouth. "You always sound so vigorous and intimidating in your songs, though. I guess it's an advantage of youth?"

In reply Jiwon just smiled at him shyly, occupied with thinking about something else. So Seunghoon did know about him and apparently had listened to some of his songs, what were the chances?

"You know about me?" He put down the sandwich and asked, eyebrows corrugated with concentration. In return Seunghoon just shrugged carefreely.

"Well yeah, you're fairly famous, pal. You were invited last night, right?"

The answer obviously did not clarify anything, so Jiwon, rather awkwardly, but still much determinately, decided to proceeds further:

"You said you came to see someone last night." He asked the question that held the same power as an _"Are you B.I?"_ , but was not as embarrassing as the latter. "And you got to meet him. Was he also a rapper there?"

"Ah, yeah. I admire that person a lot." Seunghoon grinned. "It was a bit risky, but I definitely had to see him somehow."

"Can you tell me who that is?" Jiwon whispered as if they were secret agents trading information, and even if Seunghoon did not know what he was playing at, he whispered back. A single word that ended all of his doubts.

"Mino"

Oh.

"I and some friends of mine, you see, we're kind of making a band." Seunghoon confessed, an excited smile plastered on his face. "We've got two great vocalists and one day Seungyoon...one of the vocalists, I mean- he's also our leader, a nice young man... He said we should have one more rapper to complete the set and I was like, I knew this guy named Mino. And when Seungyoon listened to Mino's tracks, he liked his voice and, yeah." Seunghoon stopped to take a breath. "So I got the mission of inviting Mino to our band, but I only got to see him for a teeny bit." He ended with a dramatic sigh, followed with minutes of silence for Jiwon didn't say anything to comment.

Jiwon was taken aback, not because of the disclosed information, but at himself for not feeling even the slightest surprise. It would be a lie to say that he did not see that coming, he could tell that certain things didn't click. Well then, there goes nothing. At least he was treated to lunch.

"I have Mino's number. I can give it to you if you want." Jiwon says while Seunghoon was taking his first bite, resulting in the latter almost choked on the food for trying to reply hastily.

"Yes! Give it to me!" He exclaimed after managing to swallow the whole thing without being choked to death. "I mean, if you would, please give me his number my good sir."

Jiwon laughed, then took out his phone. The smile on his face was washed off immediately as he saw the notification of tons of missed calls and an only text from Jinhwan that consisted of some capitalized words "KIM JIWON UR DEAD". Uh-oh.

"Just a sec." He murmured, pressing the call button and keeping a decent distance between the phone and his ear in case Jinhwan's falsetto broke his eardrum. Fortunately, the other person greeted him with a normal-pitched voice.

"Oh look, guess who has finally discovered how to use his phone?" Jinhwan said with his mean-girl tone, to which Jiwon just snickered nervously.

"Hi hyung. I forgot to switch my phone off the vibrate mode."

"Did you hit your head somewhere? 'Cause you sure forgot a lot of stuff lately."

"What do you mean?" Jiwon furrowed his brows, and the next second Jinhwan's piercing voice caused him to bring his phone away from his ear.

"The project meeting, idiot! You asked me to help you and your crush, remember?"

Well _this_ was a surprise.

Not even bother questioning Jinhwan's choice of words, he felt his stomach made a leap as the piece of memory returned to him. They agreed on a meeting in this very morning and he just let this whole B.I thing swept him away. Hanbin was waiting for him and oh Lord he should have gone to see if the boy were alright, he didn't find him last night--

"Where are you now?" He asked, standing up as if ready to run.

"The dandelion cafe. But the meeting ended." Jinhwan answered with a bored voice. "We waited for centuries but you never turned up or picked up the phone, so I assumed you had forgotten about us and decided to leave. But Hanbin said he would stay to wait. He said that he got a song to write anyway."

"Is he still there now?"

"I don't know, maybe you should go check up on him. Is it far from your place to the cafe?"

Jiwon took a moment to think, then replied. "Might take up to three hours on the train."

"Then call him." Jinhwan said. A perfect solution. Jiwon would want to, but he couldn't. He thanked Jinhwan, hung up, then gave Seunghoon the phone number and ran to the nearest station. He just realized that he didn't have Hanbin's number.

When he got to the cafe, there was no sign of a boy with a compose note anywhere. He asked a waiter and found out that Hanbin had just left not long ago. That stubborn kid managed to wait for three more hours for Jiwon. Maybe he just got distracted with writing songs, Jiwon assumed, but the thought warmed his heart anyway.  
  


 

 

Jiwon got a message as he got home. It was from a recently added number, the two letters indicating the sender made him waste no time in opening the message, only to frown at it confusedly.

What an expert, at both hiding and messing around.  
  


 

 _From: B.I_  
_Do you have to go today? Can’t you go tomorrow?_  
_I don’t wanna let you go, when will you be back?_  
_I’m scared of getting far away from you_  
_What if we naturally break up? Just one more day,_ _just one more hour, just one more minute_  
  


 

 _From: Bobby_  
_?_


	6. Chapter 6

When Jinhwan managed to drag his feeble legs through four staircases and reached the Compose class, he was sweating like mad and out of breath and less Jinhwan-ish than he had ever been in his life because apparently he had yet to grown to his fullest potential (someday, though. Someday) to have long legs and climb stuff. However, as he had finally done wheezing to straighten his back, a figure of a person leaning against the wall nearby caught his eyes, and immediately Jinhwan fixed his posture, then walked forward with his nose in the air.

He pretended to not see the other person even when he had chased and caught up to him.

"Hyungg" Kim Jiwon's voice whined, the younger boy's ridiculously huge body got in Jinhwan's way. "I'm very very sorry for ditching you. Please grant this stupid little brother your forgiveness."

"How unfortunate to have a little brother like you." Jinhwan said cooly, attempting to step to the side, causing Jiwon to hastily follow.

"Come on, Jinanie" Jiwon's shoulders slouched while he presented his best puppy eyes. He brought his hands up from behind his back, holding two cups of beverage. "I have coffee!"

Well God knew Jinhwan could not refuse caffein hostage.

"You still owe me lunch." He announced, and Jiwon's eyes bended into curves when his face lit up with a grin.

"You are the best hyung ever, you know that?"

"Of course I do, now give me one, I run on coffee to live." Jinhwan said, extending a hand to grab the coffee cup on Jiwon's left hand, only to be taken aback when the younger pulled it away.

"Here you are," Jiwon clumsily gave him the cup on his right hand, smiling apologetically when Jinhwan squinted at him. "That one has a lot of milk. It's for... um, another person."

Jinhwan's eyebrow shot upward, but he didn't say anything. Only a small smirk tugged up the corner of his lips.

"So... uh, did anything happen yesterday?" Jiwon cleared his throat and asked nervously as they walked together to class.

"Uh, yeah? Like, you asked me to come and then stood me up for half a day?"

"No! I'm sorry, but not that! Like... did... did you and ... um... anything..."

"Did anything happen between me and Hanbinie?" Jinhwan finished his stuttering, clearly amused with the other's flustered face. "Nah, we're fine. He's a nice kid. A little shy, but he's cute like that."

"I know rig-..." Jiwon was on the verge of dazedly agreeing when realization hit him. "... Wait, _Hanbinie_?"

"We came to become quite close thanks to you giving us an entire morning of bonding session." The grin on Jinhwan's face grew bigger as he fastens his pace, making the other boy hurry to catch up.

"Anything else that I don't know?" Jiwon asked doubfully, narrowing his thin eyes in alarm.

"Yes. Hanbinie and I are getting married." Jinhwan walked through the door of the lecture hall. "And also, we will perform ' _Airplane_ ' instead of ' _Today_ ' for the assignment."

"Wait, what?! No but. What?!!" Jiwon's terrified shout made Jinhwan cracked up in giggles, but he pulled back on his straight face as he sat down on a seat near the walk way. Jiwon climbed over the desk behind to sit down next to him. Before the other got to open his mouth, Jinhwan had cut in:

"While we were rotten waiting for you yesterday Hanbinie managed to finish the bridge for Airplane. He was quite pleased with it and decided that we should go with that instead. You wrote a rap part for it already right?"

"Yeah but..."

"Then we're good to go." Jinhwan smiled, somewhat smugly and Jiwon didn't get to comment anything for at that very moment, the sight of a grey hoodie, a beanie with price tag still dangling and bony hands covered in big cuffs came into view and Jiwon immediately stood up like being electrified. He climbed over Jinhwan despite the older boy protesting and took over his seat by the walk way, so that when Kim Hanbin slowly made his way down, Jiwon could grab his sleeve and stop him.

The boy's eyes still drooping with sleep a second ago instantly shot open, he jolted and looked around in horror.

"... Hi," Jiwon cracked his most polite and friendly smile. "We have an empty seat here."

He could even see the insult forming its way out of Hanbin's pouty lips as the boy glared at him with the familiar grumpy plus early-wake-up-rage attitude, but the expected battle never broke out. Hanbin stared at him for what seemed like ten years, then as if suddenly woke up from a daze, he looked away, wordlessly nodded and sat down next to Jiwon.

"...Thanks." He murmured in a tiny voice, face turned aside, but the pinkish shade on his cheeks did not go unnoticed.

Blush. Kim Hanbin is _blushing_.

For some reasons the notion also made Jiwon's own face heat up. He slid the coffee cup in front of Hanbin, then fixed his stare forward as if the black board suddenly had become so intriguing. They sat in silence for a while, trying not to touch even a milicentimeter of the other while Jinhwan watched them with an expression of both pity and humor.

Jiwon, in fact, had thousands of questions to pour on Hanbin, like where did he go last Thursday night, did he come home safely, why did he wait for so long yesterday, why are his lips so pink and full and oh God, Jiwon thought he was finally being driven mad, words jumped out of his mouth before he could control himself:

"Are you.... Are you really getting married to Jinhwan hyung?" He whispered and immediately wanted to bite his tongue. He had gone mad, that's how it is.

"Huh? No, what are you talking about?" Hanbin whispered back confusedly, his eyebrows furrowed in annoyance but the corner of his lips pulled up a bit as if being restrained from forming a smile. Jiwon's heart made a flip and maybe he was not only going crazy but getting a heart attack too.

"O-okay." He muttered, trying to ignore the small insane part of him that felt relieved. He couldn't help but added after a minute. "And... um, about yesterday. I- I'm sorry."

"Nevermind that. I figure you had more important stuff to do." Hanbin said, monotonously, casually, as if he had accepted it as a fact and Jiwon immediately turned to face him, an arm subconciously grabbed the back of Hanbin's seat as he said hastily. Surely.

"No. It's not as important." He saw Hanbin's dark orbs dilated in surprise, then his face reddened at their proximity. "I was just stupid and forgot our meeting. Really. This matters more." _You matter more._

  
This time it was Hanbin who was flustered and didn't know what to say. "... Okay." He said softly, looked down with cheeks and ears beet red. His fingers slightly trembled as he grabbed the cup on his desk and took a sip, which drew Jiwon's attention to his lips again and oh no, mayday. He turned away, trying to tell himself that the edge of the window was so much more interesting, and failing miserably. His gaze would occasionally fall on the boy sitting beside him, only so he would realize that Hanbin had also been stealing glances at him. It was the longest ten minutes before class ever, for the both of them.

Not a word was spoken even when almost every seat in the lecture hall was occupied and the professor walked in. Deciding that he had watched enough of this mute comedy, Jinhwan heaved a sigh and stood up.

"Junhoe and I are gonna do our presentation first. Wait here, I'm coming right back, okay?"

"Y-yeah. Okay. Thanks again hyung!" Jiwon called after Jinhwan's back, while next to him Hanbin nodded along and stuttered some incoherent words of appreciation. When it was only two of them left, the tension was so thick a knife could cut through it.

Not being a person who could tolerate awkward silence very well, Jiwon was trying - in vain, though, to find something to say, when he noticed that the boy beside him was being kind of restless. Hanbin's fingers kept playing with his hoodie laces while his cheeks were still beet red and lips pressed into a tight line. He flinched as Jiwon leaned in a bit to whisper with a low voice:

"You okay?" He said, not looking at the other as he talked. "You're pale as a sheet right now."

"Huh? Yeah... No." Hanbin murmured, almost too softly for Jiwon to hear. Still, the other boy nodded to him sympathetically.

"I know what you're feeling. Stage fright. It's common, nothing to be embarrassed about."

"Huh?" Hanbin perked an eyebrow, looking both confused an humored. B.I having stage fright coud easily be the funniest thing he had ever heard, but he would rather saying that than admitting that he was getting nervous from breathing the same air as Kim Jiwon. And besides...

"It's okay." Jiwon said, offering a stupid smile that was a bit shy but shined so bright it could have a whole solar system for its own. "I'm gonna be right by your side."

And for that, Kim Hanbin would voluntarily have stage fright for the rest of his life.

It was too late when Hanbin realized that he had been staring at Jiwon too long to be considered normal, the latter was blinking at him confusedly with his smile turning slightly awkward. What saved Hanbin from an even more awkward excuse was the loud voice of the professor, calling their names as the next presentators.

"It's our turn already?" Hanbin muttered in surprise. He was so worked up over the existence of Jiwon that he didn't even pay attention to the performance of Jinhwan's group. Judging from Jiwon's dumb expression, he was likely to feel the same.

"I've got your back." Said the raspy voice by him as they both stood up, and then a fleeting feeling of another big warm hand hastily catching Hanbin's own, squeezing lightly in reassurance. And then Hanbin's heart beat faster than in any of his underground stages before.

"Let's go."

 

 

Airplane. _Airplane_. Okay, he remembered the lyrics. He wrote this, he practiced this. It would definitely go well.

Jiwon took a deep breath. He could do this.

Glancing to his side, he saw Jinhwan checking his microphone, and more discreetly, he threw a quick look at Hanbin too. The boy was surprisingly calmer than before, his fingers had stopped fidgetting while his eyes were ice cold, he seemed like a totally different person. For a moment when he briefly met Jiwon's gaze, his eyes widened and suddenly his stern expression melted, so he turned away and closed his eyes.

"...Two, three... and start."

Jiwon didn't look at the professor. His cue was the slight nod of Hanbin and his foot tapping on the ground to count the beats. One. Two. And Hanbin's voice filled the air and his mind.

 _"Stop for a moment, if we keep this up_  
_We won’t ever see each other again after..."_

Hanbin looked absolutely at ease and relaxed. From the gestures of his body to the look in his eyes, he didn't give off the feeling that this was the first time he performed in front of a crowd. And his voice. Hanbin's voice. He sounds a pitch higher when he sang. He sounds amazing. Like he was singing straight from his heart. And he sounds... - Jiwon furrowed his eyebrows, trying to find the exact word- He... he sounds...

_"La li la di dada la li da..."_

Jinhwan's sweet voice cut in, dragging Jiwon back to Earth and he hurriedly followed:

_"I hate the sky for wrapping around you..."_

_"La li la di dada la li da..."_

_"I hate the moon for revealing you."_

At the corner of his eyes Jiwon could see Hanbin watching him.

_"La li la di dada la li da"_

Hanbin was smiling as he sang the next line. Maybe it was because of the song that his smile looked so sad.

 _"Because I don’t wanna let you go like this_  
_This is the saddest melody in the world_  
_Hey Mr. Airplane"_

The hook was for Jinhwan to shine, and he did so brilliantly. Jiwon felt a bit proud as he saw even the professor was nodding along the melody. It suited Jinhwan so well.

It was Jiwon's part right after that and he only had time to receive an encouraging glance from Jinhwan, see Hanbin subconsciously mouthing the first words of his rap and he turned to look at the audience, feeling invincible.

 _"You left behind a light smile_  
_Left with a smiling face..."_

It was at this point that he realized that he didn't really need to try too hard memorizing these lyrics. Just let the melody get to him and words would naturally come. The last of his part was followed by Jinhwan's falsetto, back and forth between them, then ended with Hanbin. Jiwon turned to smile at him, only to see that the other wasn't looking at him.

 _"... Hey Mr. Airplane_  
_Stop for a moment"_

Maybe it was because the next part was the bridge that Hanbin just wrote. Maybe he was just getting nervous. Maybe that's why he wasn't looking Jiwon in the eye as he sang.

However, when the next few words escaped his lips, Jiwon stopped wondering.

 _" Do you have to go today? Can’t you go tomorrow?_  
_I don’t wanna let you go, when will you be back?_  
_I’m scared of getting far away from you..."_

In those few minutes, what Kim Jiwon was capable of doing reduced to just staring. Each word sounded louder than it really was, ringing in his ears.

No. He breathed in. _No way._

And here's the thing. Similar words in different songs? Common coincidence. Two, three words? Possible. But that right now wasn't really the case.

Exactly the same. Every single word. Jiwon had read the message of B.I from last night over and over, not being able to understand what the other meant. He remembered it, enough to know that Hanbin was singing all the words that B.I texted him. From the very beginning to the last words that were now still falling from those lips.

 _" What if we naturally break up?"_ He sang, much like a grieving sigh. _"Just one more day, just one more hour,..."_

 _"Just one more minute._ " Jiwon whispered, in sync with the other high-pitched voice. He breathed out.

Oh.

 

 

  
Jiwon didn't know when the song ended (thank God he didn't have more lines after the bridge) or how he was able to walked back to his seat in a daze. His head was a mess right now, all that he could think was that he _needed to talk to Hanbin right now._ His eyes followed the other boy as he stopped to tell the professor something, then proceeded to walk pass his seat and then out of the lecture hall.

A second of astonishment. And the next Jiwon had already stood up, ready to chase the other.

"Over there, Mr. Kim. What do you think you are doing?" Came the voice of the professor.

"Where did Hanbin just go?" Jiwon asked right back, then added. "Sir?"

"He said he was feeling ill, but..."

"Then I must make sure my partner will get better."

With that he bolted out, didn't bother getting the permission. The hallway was utterly empty when he ran out, he couldn't spot the sight of a grey hoodie anywhere. He used to not know how to find or even contact Kim Hanbin, but not anymore. Not if what the other boy had just pointed out to him was right.

He took out his phone, and dialed the number under the two letters B.I. Then he waited.

In the silence of the mid-period, a voice and heavy hiphop beats pierced the air. Jiwon squinted, detecting the source of the sound, and all he had to do was walking to the end of the hallway, looking behind the wall. And there Kim Hanbin was, clearly had just hastily tried to turn off ' _Bounce_ '. He looked up, meeting eyes with Jiwon when the latter hit the End call button. The song on Hanbin's phone immediately stopped.

They stared at each other for a while.

Jiwon saw the blush creeping on Hanbin's ears and face and knew that himself was no better, but now that they really faced each other, fully aware of the other person, he didn't really know what to say. After a long awkward minute, he decided to join Hanbin and sat down next to him, back against the wall, keeping a decent space between them. Another long minute passed.

"... So." At last, Jiwon broke the silence. "B.I"

They both faced different directions, too concious about the other's present, but Jiwon could imagine Hanbin's face burnt with embarrassment.

"... Bobby." He managed to say, arms hugging his legs tightly to his body as if contracting into a ball.

"How... How long did you know...?" Jiwon cleared his throat, turned his head slightly to peek at the other. As he predicted, Hanbin was already red as a tomato.

"... The Thirsday night cypher. I was late, but I didn't miss your opening performance." Hanbin replied, his voice soft in his throat. Jiwon instantly turned to look straight at Hanbin with wide, disbelieving eyes.

"And you didn't tell me right away?" He exclaimed with a scandalized tone. "I was running everywhere looking for you and B.I and just... _You_!"

"I-It was difficult to find a way to tell you!"

"And you thought shocking me during our presentation was a good idea?" Jiwon said with doubtful narrowed eyes.

"... It seemed so at the time." Hanbin said, now his neck was also red.

"And all this time too! You knew that I like B.I-... y-your songs and you didn't tell me that was you?"

"Well, didn't you do the same?" Hanbin snapped back, also turned to face the other. Both of them were blushing, at the same time recalling every embarrassing moment of themselves praising the other person right in his face. Unbeknownly. But now they knew.

"... You said that your songs were trash." Jiwon murmured, somewhat still sulkily, and Hanbin had to fight a smile creeping on his face.

"Because they really were."

"No, they weren't." At his casual shrug, Jiwon immediately claimed. He was defending Hanbin, in front of Hanbin, but he still sounded so sure. "Your songs are really good. I like every single one of them."

"... Th-Thanks..." Taken aback, Hanbin could only stutter a word in reply. He then added, with a rather small voice. "Yours, too. I-I like them too."

He didn't dare to look at Jiwon's face for a while and when he managed to do so, the other had had a huge grin plastered on his face and his eyes were only two thin curved lines.

"So I'm your favorite artist, huh." He snickered, and something about his smug face made Hanbin instantly retort:

"In your dreams, idiot!"

A second later he realized that that smug face actually belonged to his favorite artist, so he lowered his eyes and spoke to the ground.

"... I'm sorry. That was on reflex."

Jiwon's laughter rang through the air and Hanbin felt his heart throb and fireworks go off inside his chest and he didn't sure what that meant. He didn't get to think any further about it, for when he looked up and met Jiwon's eyes, their faces were suddenly so so close and his mind went blank.

It stopped being funny when Jiwon felt the other's breath on his face, saw the cherry-colored lips up close and wide black orbs staring at him. It was all so sudden, he wasn't even sure how he felt about this and all but then his questions started to die down, all that he could think of was that Hanbin's lips might taste like too-much-milk coffee and how wonderful that sounded and...

 _Ding_.

Half-lidded eyes shot open. For a moment they could see their horror reflected in the other's eyes.

In a milisecond they both jumped apart, limbs trembling and cheeks bright red.

"M-my phone" Jiwon stuttered, clumsily reached for the phone in his pocket with its screen lit up indicating a new message. "S-Sorry about th-that..."

"No no it's fine you... me... uhh..." Hanbin looked like his brain circuit just snapped, he took a few steps back, trying to ease his breath. Gradually aware of what they almost did, he flustered, then said with his voice pitches too high. "I-I think we sh-should go back to class... I will go first."

Then he turned his back and ran with all his might, leaving behind an equally embarrassed Jiwon. He slouched against the wall, watched as Hanbin disappeared behind the corner, then dazedly opened his phone.

His eyebrows corrugated for a moment, then he slammed his face down his palm.

He was so, so doomed.

 

 

 _From: Jinny_  
_Did I interrupt anything? I hope I did :)_

 

 _From: Jiwonie_  
_Fuck you :)_

 

  
"Was that fun?" Junhoe confusedly asked, seeing Jinhwan brightened when receiving a message.

"Yes, especially after I, a generous and kind-hearted hyung who did not only agree to help them with their assignment but also their love life - only got a B while they brought home an A." Jinhwan said, smiling wickedly. "After all this I deserve a little fun."

"I still don't know when did they become so friendly though" Junhoe tilted his head in bafflement, to which Jinhwan just smiled benevolently.

"Oh, you should be happy you don't know." He sighed. "They will become _friendlier_ soon."

 


End file.
